Prax Mendica
An asteroid-based order of monks belonging to the High Church of Messiah-as-Emperox that practice the arts martial and brewing as much as spiritual. They manage and wander between isolated hostel-monasteries carved into far flung space rocks. Known informally known as Mendicars or the Mendicari, their official name is the Practical Order of those Mendicant Monastic. Additionally they may be called Followers of the Practicum Mendicus, the Prax Mendica, or more simply the Wanderlost. Origins The first monastery was a modest domicile built by an asteroid homesteader. It was little more than a prospector’s hovel, with the occupant trying to strike out on their own and make it rich. It is said when the Scream came, the prospector was stranded inside when their gravity generator and oxygen processors failed. Floating there with only the air of one hab-dome to sustain them, they slowed their breathing and entered a hibernation-like trance. It is said in this state their spirit wandered, their mind made witness to the universe and contemplating the face of god. Perhaps only the visions of hypoxia, the homesteader survived far longer than was reasonable. Sceptics claim their body was simply well preserved in the isolated coffin of the dome and advanced medical technologies allowed them to be later rejuvenated. Regardless, the nameless prospector became like an ascetic upon eventual discovery and rescue. The prospector made no overt teachings, preached no philosophies, simply lived well by living very simply. They cultivated a meagre existence subsistence-farming on the asteroid, but were always willing to share their table with travellers. The asteroid-farm became a hostel and haven to those called the astromagna. People cut off by the Scream, forced to take up a nomadic existence in order to survive. Just as such people saved/revived the prospector from catastrophe, succour was offered in turn. Eventually the systems of the Sector would be reconnected, and the various wandering peoples would be rescued and brought back to their proper place in the Chain of Being. Their tradition of the home-stead as a pilgrimage site and promise of sanctuary would endure. The Order Sacred scholars and even some few desperate nobles (such as those on the wrong side of the First Imperial Civil War) would hear of the astral hermit and seek them out. Again, the hermit offered no teachings, working and living simply instead. Presumably they contemplated holy thoughts from existing tenants of the High Church. People found much worth emulating in the hermit and the hermit found themself with field hands. When the hermit at last succumbed to old age, they were given to the earth in which they had toiled for countless years. By then there were many students even if there was no proper doctrine for the order. Those who came after would incorporate elements of Trappist monks and the “Rule of St. Benedict”, minor aspects of Daoism and some hints of some Jainism. Ritualism was applied to the traditions of minimalism, and it was recorded in a text called the Curate Nostrum. The book added nothing new to existing church practices, merely arranged pre-existing and like-philosophies into complementary tracts, along with the musings of various monks penned into the margins. In this way, there is no definitive version of the Curate Nostrum. It is more like an asteroid farmer’s almanac mixed with folksy wisdom and pithy High Church catechisms. The Order grew out of this first monastery and a handful of students. This original abbey would eventually be lost to time, along with the nameless prospector-ascetic. It is unclear which asteroid belt it resided in, or when exactly it was lost. The various and diverse copies of the Curate Nostrum would spread though, leading to more asteroid-abbeys with more monks and thus the Order itself. Traditions The monks adopted a methodology of ‘wander and ponder.’ An evolution of the old Ora et Labora ‘work and pray’ of the Benedictine monks of Terra. They would catch rides on space vessels and wander between various asteroid belts, performing small jobs like helping with ship’s maintenance, or simply sweeping out the cargo hold. It is the tradition of monks to ‘tidy up’ the asteroid belts/clusters they reside within, but also to carve. The hostels in which the monks live and serve (and wander between,) tend to be simple converted hab-domes. Monks repair abandoned mining bases or wrecked ships deemed not worth salvaging. From these, many hostels are created in, and spread to, far out of the way places. The monasteries-proper are carved out of the rock itself. Halls and chambers would be bored by hand out of the stone, every square-inch bearing elaborate bas-reliefs. Generations of master-to-student traditions would add to these asteroid monasteries; more rooms and more embellishments created over multiple life times. The monasteries have no artificial gravity or atmospheres added in. Rather monks tend to enjoy going for space walks and enjoying the 'void tapestries' that are their legacy. Deus-ex-Vino Two things are grown by the asteroid monks, two crops survive from the original homestead; short grains and grape vines. The monks do a lot of baking, creating dark bread, grain porridges, and a stout beer. Loaves and wine tend to be what the monks take with them in their travels, though they subsist off porridge-gruel when in residence. A gengineered version of the Terran Riesling was adapted to grow in the hab-domes of asteroid farms, far from the light of the sun and good soil. The plant has a thorny root network that grows into solid stone, absorbing useful minerals from the asteroid itself. Over successive generations it has developed a leathery insectile carapace allowing it to endure even in the open vacuum of space. These so called dragon vines send out flowering shoots which absorb whatever faint light of the sun reaches them. After whatever passes for a ‘season’ for the plant, these buds wither and shrivel up into what has been termed void grapes. Monks collect the grapes and make a syrup out of it, with which to sweeten their breads and porridges, and as an additive to their brewing process. There is an asteroid ice wine called void wine that the monks drink; but more famous by far is their dark stout. The beverage is named Tanzer or Tannhäuser among other things, its specific etymology lost to time. The beer can take decades to brew properly, and is exceedingly rare outside of the monasteries. Some nobles are known to pay exorbitant prices to acquire the luxury; including suffering many of the monks’ obligatory ale''steroid puns. Prax Mendica Wandering and often unarmed monks tend to be vulnerable entities in the wider hostilities of the sector. Over the centuries a form of defensive kata mixed with vacsuit breathing exercises and spacer gymnastics has crystallized. The Order had the combined skills of post-Scream refugees, wandering ''astromagna tribal nomads, and those seeking refuge from the strife of the First Civil War to draw upon. Not to mention, there is a certain physicality required to wear a vacsuit and navigate between drifting asteroids for extended periods of time. The weak and the incapable are quickly winnowed away from life in the Order. This zero-G martial art is as much the bearer of the term ‘Practicum Mendicus’ or 'Prax Mendicus' as any of the Order’s other aspects. Monks spend far more time wandering between space rocks and derelict hauls in their vacsuits than they do toiling in their abbey hab-domes. This lends a willowy, even frail appearance to the practitioners. The martial art has a lot to do with re-directing force, and anticipating a series of engaging manoeuvrers several steps ahead of time. Mendicars are often underestimated in standard gravity for their slight seeming presences, only for others to learn it’s less about one having strength but rather how they apply it. Some rumours persist that with the Mendicars’ prolonged exposure to cosmic rays, they have an increased penchant for MES manifestations. This has led some to infer there are psychic aspects to their physical discipline. Any truth to these speculations has never been reliably corroborated. It is considered however best practice and common wisdom not to trifle with the wizened Mendicars in their wandering and wonderings. More than one obnoxiously aggressive traveller has been flipped out an airlock by what should have been a harmless old pensioner. Category:The High Church of Messiah-as-Emperox